Chicken, Pistachio and Dill Kofte (+ Others!)

Chicken, Pistachio and Dill Kofte:

I had a lot of chicken thighs in the freezer and wanted to use some of them up so had a look through my books and spotted a recipe for Chicken, Pistachio and Dill Kofte in the Berber and Q book. I was sold from the picture alone!

The Meat:

1.4kg of chicken thighs from Herb Fed, I have been buying their chicken for a long time now as it’s high welfare, high quality meat. Good to see more people buying from them recently too.

The Prep:

Most of the Berber and Q recipes have a fair bit of prep but this one was simple in comparison to most.

The Tahina Corn Remoulade was made from corn kernels, mayonnaise, tahini, gherkins, capers, flat leaf parsley, pickle brine, lemon juice, garlic, shallot, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper and Harissa (the last 3 were from Steenbergs). I made this the night before and left it in the fridge.

I removed the bones from the chicken thighs and chopped them up then placed the meat in a bowl in the freezer along with the metal parts from the mincer. After about half an hour I minced the meat which worked really well, no issues with the mincer this time (the blade was on the right way round lol!).

Once minced I added shallots, garlic, dill, coriander, pistachios, biber salcasi, Aleppo chilli flakes, red chilli, lemon zest, salt and pepper. This was mixed together with the chicken and placed in the fridge to cool. I only gave it an hour then formed the kofte, it didn’t go well to start with as the meat was dropping off the skewers! We put the meat in the freezer to cool more and tried again about an hour later. It was still quite hard but this time I formed the kofte on the back of a metal tray then slotted the skewer through then we put the metal tray in the freezer for another hour which seemed to work well.

More skewers were prepared with onion, red onion and chillis on.

The Cook:

A full chimney starter of Oxford Charcoal Oak poured over the base of the Napoleon Pro 22 then grates on top. As you will see from the photo the grates are in a disgraceful state, I have sorted it since! Onions and chilli’s on first.

Followed by some small kofte.

Then the big boys went on.

I also cooked some flatbreads on the Ooni Pro at the same time. This was the Rich Harris recipe again and these flatbreads were probably my best yet. The difference? I used a rolling pin to roll the dough out rather than shape by hand!

They were too big to go in freezer bags (steam keeps them soft) so I wrapped them in tea towels which also worked.

Time to Plate Up:

Time to Eat:

I also plated one up without a flatbread similar to the book.

I was so hungry now!

SUMMARY:

Yet again, a stunning meal from the Berber and Q cookbook. It was already my favourite cookbook but with each cook it just gets better and better! The kofte were a massive pain in the a$$ to shape onto the skewers but from the feedback on social media it seems everyone has enjoyed the same issues when making kofte/kebabs. If I made them again I would get the meat super cold in the fridge before shaping it and after shaping it to try and make it easier.

The kofte was really, really tasty and neither of us wanted the meal to end. Leftovers the next day seemed to taste even better! The Tahina Corn Remoulade was also incredible and definitely worth making with this. Someone on twitter suggested serving with a grilled lemon which is a good idea, next time!

Cook Difficulty:

5/5

Cook Duration:

Medium: 3/5

Cook Equipment:

Ooni Pro and Napoleon Pro 22

Cook Method:

Flatbread in the Pro / Kofte on the Grill

Charcoal:

Oxford Charcoal Oak

Smoking Wood:

None

Cook temperature:

500c+ in the Pro / Very hot in the Napoleon!

Cook time:

About 2 minutes per flatbread and 12 minutes for the kofte.

Internal temperature:

75c

Notes:

1: I was calling the Kofte “The Divorce Maker” when trying to shape them and keep them on the skewers! Give yourself plenty of time to sort them and get the meat as cold as you can before shaping them.

Also cooked this week:

Last year I wrote up every cook but it was hard work and took some of the joy out of the cooking process so this year I am just going to write up one cook a week in detail then post the rest at the bottom of that post.

Pitt Cue Sausage Bun:

I have made this before but when I heard Pitt Cue was closing I had to cook something in tribute to them. I forgot how much work was involved with this – think it was 6 hours prep, 2 hours cooking and 5 minutes eating!